Retrofitted with 123-foot ‘WindWings,’ ‘Pyxis Ocean’ is testing two giant sails on its six-week journey from China to Brazil.

  • Vent@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    Per an official announcement on August 21, Pyxis Ocean’s WindWings can save 1.5 tonnes of fuel per wing, per day. Combined with alternative fuel sources, that number could rise. During its estimated six week travels, the cargo ship’s sails will be closely monitored in the hopes of scaling the technology across both Cargill’s fleet, as well as the larger shipping industry. Speaking with BBC, one project collaborator estimated a ship using four such wings could save as much as 20 tonnes of CO2 every day.

    Big if true. Cargo ships are major polluters.

  • Troy@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Marginal improvement at best. Maybe 5-10% of the energy will be saved. Still burning fuel for the rest.

    • takeda@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      They said in the video, that it isn’t easy to decarbonize maritime industry. So I think it stayed like that because burning hydrocarbons is easiest.

      Looking at logs on those wings, I noticed EU logo there. So it looks like they are trying this because they got government money for this project and likely if not for that this work likely wouldn’t happen.